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Topic: McEnroe still has the goods... (Read 1806 times)

McEnroe beat Courier 6-4 in an exhibition set to raise money for the Tsunami victims. The guy has game... Courier just won a seniors tournament and is playing well. And some people think he cannot beat either Williams. puhlease!

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Updated: Feb. 1, 2005, 1:11 AM ET

Associated Press

HOUSTON -- Andy Roddick, Tommy Haas, John McEnroe, Chris Evert and Jim Courier played a little fun tennis for a big cause Monday night, helping to raise more than $518,000 for tsunami relief.

Roddick, who lost to Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals of the Australian Open, defeated Haas 7-6 (6) in the feature match of the event for the Bush-Clinton Fund for Tsunami Relief.

Courier, whose production company put on the event, lost 6-4 to McEnroe in the opening match.

"Everything's going very smoothly except for the fact that I just lost to a guy who has more gray hair than my father," Courier said about the loss to 45-year-old McEnroe, 12 years his senior.

The Houston Chronicle reported in its Tuesday editions that one person who insisted on anonymity paid $250,000 for 50 seats at the benefit at the Toyota Center and the United States Tennis Association contributed $25,000. Former President Bush accepted a giant check for $518,952.

Evert praised the current players who participated in the event.

"They flew all the way in from Australia for this," she said. "In my day, we never played charity events [during the season]. To see Andy fly over after a very disappointing loss -- I'm sure he's not very happy right now -- that's really impressive."

"Andy Roddick gets it, and Jim Courier gets it," McEnroe said. "Tennis needs events like this, innovations, new ways to reach out to the fans. It's for a great cause, obviously, and it's also very good for the game. Jim has credibility because he has won [three Grand Slams].

"He's still young enough that the current players know him, but he's been around long enough for the older guys like myself to remember him beating up on me at the end of my career. It's a good combination, making it easy for him to reach a lot of people."

The event was to help relief efforts in south Asia where the tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake on Dec. 26, claimed more than 178,000 lives in 11 countries.

You have to wonder if Courier was playing serious tennis since it was an exhibition. But the way he is quoted in the article above it looks like he wanted the win. Impressive for McEnore if Courier was trying.

Doing better than I thought I would be, but I am in a risky situation right now working from home trying to start a business with someone else. It has been 10 months so far and we are doing well. But you take a risk doing that, but you are also better compensated for risks like these. But I am far from rich, make no mistake!!!